Paul Simon at 85: The Distance That Remained. On Paul Simon’s 85th birthday, it is tempting to speak about songs, memory and time. But something quieter comes to mind. Once, distance was the obstacle we could see. A letter had to travel. A voice had to cross an ocean. Silence could be mistaken for absence. Today, almost anyone can be reached in seconds. We send, answer, forward, translate, record and call. The technology, at least, has done its part. Understanding has not kept pace. We have solved delivery, not attention. Even face to face, we often listen while preparing our defence, our correction or our next sentence. The silence Simon sang about has not disappeared. It has merely changed address. These days, it often sits between two people who are talking. Last year, I wrote about silence from a more personal angle in *The New Meaning of Silence – When There’s Nothing Left to Prove*, published on Substack. https://illusionsnotincluded.substack.com/p/the-new-meaning-of-sile↗